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Sunday, September 30, 2012

Hi everyone! It’s Sunday, and it’s Anne Marie’s turn to be our hostess at the Paper Players! She has a Tic Tac Toe challenge for us today:

I had just seen a lovely gray and yellow purse in church last week, so I was excited to see one of the columns featured just that color combo! I was also excited to use some chipboard I had been hoarding!! Here ya go:

The sentiment is from PTI; the panel is stamped with Established Elegance in Basic Gray ink; all papers are from MME. The sketch is from Try Stampin’ on Tuesday:

I just love this little embellishment! And of course, I had to make a shabby bow! I used white seam binding dyed with So Saffron, River Rock, Crumb Cake and More Mustard inks!

I sure hope that you will play along with the Paper Players this week….this is a fun challenge with lots of possibilities….and we can’t wait to see what you come up with!

And finally, I took Cassidy to my SIL’s house to see my niece’s newborn and her two-year-old, Trent. Tricia let Cassidy get up close and personal, showing her Chaz’s little toes, which both toddlers just thought was hysterical!

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Well, between battling stink bugs and getting ready for a church yard sale yesterday , I did squeeze in some time to make a baby card for our youth pastor and his wife! This is a very loose interpretation of the iSpy sketch from this week:

and I wanted to use the “shoe" inspiration from the cue card at CAS-ology, but this really isn’t that CAS. Here we go:

Some cute MME papers, a (sadly) retired Cornish Heritage Farms image and a little paper button wraps it up. I popped up the shoes and gave them a little pink hue:

Friday, September 28, 2012

I’ve had several people ask about how I make a shabby, vintage-looking ribbon and bow like the one on these projects:

It’s really easy, so I threw together a few photos to help you along the way. In these shots, I used Stampin’Up!’s Rose Red seam binding, but I have also used store-bought steam binding as well. (I haven’t tried it with any other kind of ribbon---it needs to be the seam binding, as it is soft enough to crinkle!) Pull off a good yard or so (or more if you want to do a whole supply of it---might as well!), and let’s get to work:

Easy as pie! Much faster than my old method of heating it in the oven!!! You can make as few or as many loops as you want; this one only has two on each side; and trim your tails to the size you want too. I have found that a hot glue gun is the best way to attach them to your project. You can also add a button, brad or charm to the center.

I have dyed white seam binding with SU inks; it is a little messy, and you have to experiment with the dyes as you may not get as dark a color as you like, or you may need to mix colors. Just dilute the dye with a little bit of water in a baggie or on your silicone craft sheet and mush the seam binding around until it is all saturated (remember tie-dying?). I like to squeeze out the excess using a paper towel wrapped around my seam binding, remove it from the paper towel, and then proceed right to the microwave. Have fun! Here’s another project I made a few months ago:

And a few more swaps from the meeting last week:

From Kathi Davis:

From my downline Kathy Kelly-Borowski:

And from my downline Laura Chambers:

Wonderful cards!

Playing with my great-nephew Trent in his sandbox at Uncle Raymond’s!!!

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Happy Thursday, everyone! Wow, this week is zipping by! I have had these little elements sitting on my desk, unused, for a few weeks now. I was going to use them on another project but changed my mind. I finally put them to use for a baby shower card I need for this weekend, and the RetroSketches sketch was inspiration. Here it is:

and here’s the card:

Images are from Every Little Bit, stamped in Stazon and colored with markers and a blender pen; sentiment is from Baby Bundle. BG paper is from MME’s Nostalgia line. I also promised to show you some pictures from my upline meeting; I mostly got pix of cards and projects, and only one of my upline Pennie:

She did an amazing amount of work to get this ready, and brought it all from Washington state to Pennsylvania! Over the next few days, I’ll show you a few cards & projects. This is a fabric-covered pumpkin, which sent me scurrying to find that pumpkin I know I have in my craft room somewhere:

And this adorable clothespin wreath was made by my incredibly talented friend Barbara:

and this is her swap card, which she gave me even though I ran out of mine:

Oh my gosh…it’s just beautiful! Puts my CAS little swap to shame!

And finally, a shot of Cassidy….we have her pool drained and almost ready to go into storage, but she still likes to play in the rainwater it caught:

Be sure to stop by tomorrow when I’ll have my shabby-ribbon tutorial for you!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

I needed a thank you note for the people at my favorite cross-stitch store, the Strawberry Sampler, for framing my latest cross-stitch piece just in time to enter it in the local county fair!

The Kraft Journal’s Make it Monday challenge is to make a clean and simple creation with kraft; there aren’t many layers or embellishments, so I hope this fits that challenge! I did some watercoloring on Crumb Cake cardstock, after stamping my image in Stazon:

I used ink and a white watercolor crayon for my images. This set has been retired for a few years, but I still love it! And here is my project and my blue ribbon! Not too good of a photo, sorry! This thing is HUGE; it represents the four seasons and is by Marjolein Bastin, who is a Dutch artist for Hallmark.

Here’s a little better closeup:

I wrote on my pattern that I started this in 2007!!! Truthfully, I didn’t work on it consistently until last year, but I joined a knitting group that meets once a week; they knit, I cross-stitch!!! Thanks for indulging me a bit!

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Happy Tuesday, happy fall! Well, I know, it was fall on Saturday, but it REALLY felt like fall yesterday! Wow! Perfect timing for this beautiful challenge from Arielle for the ColourQ:

I think I read that this pillow is woven leather strips! What a terrific inspiration! I pulled out French Foliage…the BEST fall set, to make my card:

Normally I would pair this with Very Vanilla, but I love the clean, crisp look that the white cardstock gives! I embossed it with a fall EF, added some DP strips, my leaves, which are also stamped with Gold Glory, a sentiment tag with some faux suede ribbon, and a little button gourd:

I had an extra leaf cut out, so I added it to the inside along with one of my favorite fall sayings:

My minister actually used this saying in one of his sermons last year, and he pronounced “Camus” like “kay-moo”…..so apparently it is French and I have been mispronouncing it for a long time!! Hope you can play along with our beautiful fall color palette this week! Can’t wait to see what you share with us over at the ColourQ blog!

Cassidy won’t be back until tonight, so I checked some of my pictures and I don’t think I shared this one from a few weeks ago….just chillin’ in the laundry basket:

If I did already share it, it’s still fun to see it again! Have a wonderfully blessed day!

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About Me

I am a SU demonstrator who loves all kinds of papercrafts as well as crosswords, knitting, cross stitch and sewing. My sweet hubby John patiently puts up with all of my crafting! I also have a beautiful daughter Dana as well as a sweet granddaughter who brings us joy and laughter! We are a Christian family and strive to glorify the Lord in all we do. You can reach me at leanne.pugliese@gmail.com